Local Landcarers Shine at Regional Landcare Awards

The Kyogle Shire has cleaned up at the recent Northern Rivers Landcare Awards, held in Grafton on Friday April 1. Trevor and Kay Wilson from Dyrabba won the Northern Rivers Soil Health Award, gained 2nd place in the Landcare Primary Producer Award and also 3rd place in the Innovation in Sustainable Farm Practices Award. Trevor and Kay have been leading the way in innovative land management with pasture management and increasing soil carbon.

Kyogle High school won first place in the School Education Award recognising the hard work of their students and teachers to improve their environment.

Our own Landcare Community Support Officer Bob Jarman was awarded 2nd place in the Local Landcare Facilitator/Coordinator Award. This award was recognition for the hundreds of workshops, field days and landholders he has supported over the years and the funding he has helped bring into the area for on-ground environmental works.

From Toonumbar we had Susan and Wayne Somerville that came 2nd in the Individual Landcarer Award category for their work in developing new techniques for large scale lantana control having treated 300 hectares of forest.

Don Durrant was awarded 3rd place in the Individual Landcarer Award for the restoration work on his rural holding of 300 ha near Kyogle that contains the most significant dry rainforest remnant in private ownership in NSW.

Regional Landcare Facilitator, Jodie Gager, said that the Landcare Award categories highlight and recognised the diversity of the work undertaken by volunteers to protect and restore our natural resources and show a broad cross-section of the community participating in Landcare activities.

"The Awards acknowledge the achievements of the dedicated people who commit their own time to care for our environment and contribute to sustainable primary production," Ms Gager said.

Ms Gager said that winners of the Northern Rivers Regional Landcare Awards who meet the NSW Landcare Awards criteria would be automatically nominated for the 2011 State Landcare Awards to be held at the Parkes Landcare Muster in September.

The 2011 Northern Rivers Landcare Awards were supported by the Landcare groups of the North Coast Regional Landcare Network and the Northern Rivers Catchment Management Authority.